A NOVICE PLAYS THE STOCK MARKET

When I was about 18, I was working in the summer at an architectural firm, and just about to go to college. I had no expenses other than the occasional new outfit and night out to eat with friends, so I decided that I should start learning how to manage my money.

After doing a lot of reading online, I opened an account with Fidelity.com. I decided to invest my money in two ways. I opened a ROTH IRA account, and took a shot at playing the stock market.

I began with the theory that I was only willing to invest what I'd also be willing to lose, because playing the stock market is essentially gambling. So, I took my birthday money and invested it. At the time the housing market was down and the economy was suffering too, so I invested in luxury goods hoping to hold onto the stocks until everything rebounded. I bought shares in both COACH (COH) handbags/accessories and Tiffany & Co. (TIF) jewelry. The logic was that in hard times, people spent less on expensive items they didn't need, but that once the economy got better, people would once again purchase these items. I also made sure to pick companies that have a great reputation and are known as classics. Since they had been around for a long time and were household names, I didn't have to worry about anything too drastic happening (although, you should never count on this either!).

Still holding onto that stock, I then decided to also take a different approach. The 2008 presidential election was coming up, and I had my hopes set on Obama. He had mentioned a lot of talk about reforming our healthcare system, and so I started to research some stock in that area. I stumbled upon a company called Intuitive Surgical (ISRG). They had a few recent news articles about how they were developing robotical systems to be used for surgery that were minimally invasive and very cost effective. I decided to take the plunge. I bought a few shares for $75 a piece. Today (09/04, those shares are up $408% and worth $487 a piece.

After some time I sold all of my Tiffany's stock at a profit, and also sold a portion of my Coach and ISRG shares. I had initially invested about 2k, and through these sales I had taken that 2k out. So at that point, anything new that I made would be a profit, not a loss. But my stock market experience hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows.

A year or two later I bought $500 worth of stock in a company called Origin Oil (OOIL). I had heard about how the company was filling it's goal to make fuel out of algae that works in any diesel engine. They where manufacturing ways to grow and harvest algae, and also ways to extract the oil. I was really excited to hear about this newer sustainable fuel possibility, and at less than $1/share I invested.

That stock has gone down $95% since I bought it. My initial $500 investment is now only worth about $20. I had gone into investing knowing this could happen, but somehow, losing that much in a company I actually cared about was really disheartening. Since I bought my shares, the company has seemingly shifted goals and now also focuses on cleaning up water that's been impacted by fracking. I'm going to continue holding onto my investment because at this point I'd be only cashing out $20 (less after trade fees), and I still do truly believe this company will do some good.

So as of this morning, I was left with $20 worth of Origin Oil stock, a couple of shares of ISRG, and about 39 shares of Coach up 146% since I purchased them.

Until....

I just purchased 2 shares of Apple (AAPL) stock for $99/share. I read an article that talked about how yesterday, they dropped over 4% in a day due to Samsung's new release. This is the largest percentage drop in a day for the last year. Knowing that Apple has new releases coming out on the 9th, I decided to take the plunge and buy. This will be the first new release since the death of Steve Jobs, and while Apple stocks notoriously drop a bit after releases, I'm hoping that I continue to see an upward trend with them in the future.

Here's a snapshot of what I currently hold. Ignore the data given for Apple. It has neither gone up or down, as my buy is still pending.

I don't know much about the stock market, but I've learned enough to do alright so far. Here's to hoping that buy a couple shared of Apple wasn't a terrible idea!

POST UPDATE (04/20/16): See THIS NEW POST for newly learned information about investments!

#stocks #investing #stockmarket #risk